Sabrinas Solutions
Sabrina Smith
Some local consumers are
fuming about bills theyve been
getting, but say they dont
deserve. In one day alone we
received 10 calls at NBC 5, from
people looking for a solution
after they were hit with big
phone bills from AT&T.

The problem seems to happen
when North Texans switch their local
phone service to AT&T. The
telephone giant is now offering local
service, not just long distance. But
many people, who make the switch,
are being billed long distance fees for
their local calls in some cases
hundreds of dollars.

What we did was call AT&T and
get the company to erase the charges
for all the consumers who contacted
us and were erroneously billed. The
company apologizes and blames the
problem on a computer error and
says no one will be charged
long-distance fees for local calls, no
matter what their bills say.

AT&T says its employing six
hundred extra people to work its
customer service department to
handle this problem and insists its
dedicated to getting the problem
resolved.

So if you get a bill you think you
dont deserve call the customer
service number at the bottom.
Explain that youre a loyal customer,
youre upset and you want changes
made in your bill.

If that fails, call the public utility
commission. The government agency
is designed to mediate complaints
between consumers and companies.